Mike Pence to North Korea: Not Taking Pressure off, but ‘if You Want to Talk, We’ll Talk’

Vice President Mike Pence told reporters on his flight back from the Winter Olympics in South Korea that a “maximum pressure campaign,” including sanctions, would continue, but diplomacy is still on the table in dealings with North Korea.

“The point is, no pressure comes off until they are actually doing something that the alliance believes represents a meaningful step toward denuclearization,” Pence said on the flight, according to Bloomberg, citing a Washington Post report.

“So the maximum pressure campaign is going to continue and intensify,” Pence said. “But if you want to talk, we’ll talk.”

The Post reported that Pence and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in agreed, in theory, to meet with North Korean officials during their meeting on the sidelines of the Olympics.

In its reporting of the Post’s article, Bloomberg said this marks a “shift” in U.S. policy.

As Breitbart News reported, the Trump administration said in November that diplomacy was not dead regarding addressing the communist regime in the north and its nuclear weapons ambitions.